Outgoing Paraguayan President Mario Abdo Benitez on Wednesday said the South American nation is open to trading with China, but would not give in to pressure to switch its diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan.
Benitez told the Qatar Economic Forum how Paraguayan president-elect Santiago Pena had committed to maintaining Paraguay’s six-decade-old relations with Taiwan that China has increasingly sought to isolate.
Paraguay is the last South American nation to maintain ties with Taiwan.
Photo: Bloomberg
Honduras in March became the latest Central American state to switch after Panama, El Salvador, Dominican Republic and Nicaragua in recent years.
Big companies in Paraguay and the main opposition candidate urged a change during the campaign for last month’s election so that the country can get access to China’s vast market.
However, Benitez said he changed Paraguay’s “strategic alliance” with Taiwan after taking office in 2018 and there had since been a huge increase in trade.
“Before there was only cooperation between Paraguay and Taiwan. Now we have changed the strategy ... and we moved forward in a more complementary strategic alliance,” he told the forum, speaking in English.
He said trade with Taiwan had increased by 500 percent during his term and if this continued “we can have enough arguments to defend our strategic alliance with Taiwan.”
Benitez said the next government could bring increased Taiwanese investment.
However, he added Paraguay could still take advantage of any trade deal that the Mercosur South American trade bloc strikes with China.
Brazilian President Lula Inacio Lula da Silva has said Mercosur should make it a priority.
“We are not against doing business with anybody, but we believe that our diplomatic relations should stay firmly with Taiwan,” Benitez said.
“But through Mercosur we can do business with anybody in the world. It is not that Paraguay does not want to do business with anybody,” he said.
“It is the other party that does not want to do business unless we change our diplomatic status. If we can use Mercosur to open our market we do not have any kind of problem of doing that,” he added.
China has offered huge commercial incentives to other countries that have switched relations.
POSITIVE DEVELOPMENT: Japan and the US are expected to hold in-depth discussions on Taiwan-related issues during the meeting next month, Japanese sources said The holding of a Japan-US leaders’ meeting ahead of US President Donald Trump’s visit to China is positive news for Taiwan, former Japan-Taiwan Exchange Association representative Hiroyasu Izumi said yesterday. After the Liberal Democratic Party’s landslide victory in Japan’s House of Representatives election, Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi is scheduled to visit the US next month, where she is to meet with Trump ahead of the US president’s planned visit to China from March 31 to April 2 for a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平). Japan and the US are expected to hold in-depth discussions on Taiwan-related issues during the
‘LIKE-MINDED PARTNER’: Tako van Popta said it would be inappropriate to delay signing the deal with Taiwan because of China, adding he would promote the issue Canadian senators have stressed Taiwan’s importance for international trade and expressed enthusiasm for ensuring the Taiwan-Canada trade cooperation framework agreement is implemented this year. Representative to Canada Harry Tseng (曾厚仁) in an interview with the Central News Agency (CNA) said he was increasingly uneasy about Ottawa’s delays in signing the agreement, especially as Ottawa has warmed toward Beijing. There are “no negotiations left. Not only [is it] initialed, we have three versions of the text ready: English, French and Mandarin,” Tseng said. “That tells you how close we are to the final signature.” Tseng said that he hoped Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney
President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday bestowed one of Taiwan’s highest honors on Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) Ambassador Andrea Clare Bowman in recognition of her contributions to bilateral ties. “By conferring the Order of Brilliant Star with Grand Cordon on Ambassador Bowman today, I want to sincerely thank her, on behalf of the Taiwanese people, for her outstanding contribution to deepening diplomatic ties between Taiwan and SVG,” Lai said at a ceremony held at the Presidential Office in Taipei. He noted that Bowman became SVG’s first ambassador to Taiwan in 2019 and
A man walks past elementary school artworks at the Taipei Lantern Festival in Ximen District yesterday, the first day of the event. The festival is to run from 5pm to 10pm through March 15.
RSS